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PHILIPSBURG – The causeway bridge scandal that earned former politician Theo Heyliger a five year prison sentence will feature in a court case in the Netherlands, where prosecutors have demand that two construction companies that were involved in the scheme – Volker Construction International and Volker Stevin Caribbean – pay a fine of 525,000 euro ($614,250) while a former director will have to pay fine of 175,000 euro ($204,750).
The prosecutor’s office in the Netherlands accuses both companies of bribing former minister Theo Heyliger to obtain the contract to build the causeway bridge that connects the Union Road in Cole Bay to the Airport Road.
The two companies completed work on the bridge in 2013. Both are subsidiaries of VolkerWessels, the second largest construction company in the Netherlands.
Prosecutors say that the two companies obtained the contract to build the bridge after they paid $860,000 in bribes to Heyliger who was at the time minister of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (Vromi). The project was worth $43.5 million and Heyliger stood to receive 2 percent of that amount.
The Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reports that Heyliger received $80,000 wrapped in newspapers on a parking lot. The middleman in the case, Ronald Maasdam, turned crown witness for which role he received the maximum sentence reduction of 50 percent.
In 2020 Heyliger was sentenced to five years of imprisonment; Maasdam had to serve 3 years, but he also had to leave Sint Maarten where he had been living for a long time.
Maasdam was also involved in bribery schemes with dredging company Devcon and road builder Windward Roads. These companies channeled bribes to offshore accounts Maasdam controlled. Windward Roads paid Heyliger a monthly bribe of $2,500 for years, plus 3 percent of the value of any contact it obtained from the government.
Windward’s former director Hendrikjan Boekaar, who was responsible for the flow of bribes to Heyliger, bought real estate with his share of the bribes in the United States, but these properties all fell into the hands of his wife when she divorced him.
Dutch prosecutors say that, due to the role of the crown witness, they have enough evidence for a guilty verdict against the two construction companies. Two other VolkerWessels employees reached a settlement with the prosecutor’s office last year.
The Volkskrant reports that the fines against Volker Construction International and Volker Stevin Caribbean have been lowered by 12,5 percent because the case has been dragging on for so long.
The court case will take place in Zwolle on Thursday when VolkerWessels will have the opportunity to tell its side of the story.
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